We acknowledge the partial support received from the "Secretariat" for Universities and Research, "Conselleria" of Economy and Knowledge, "Generalitat de Catalunya" (Government of Catalonia, Spain) for the funded recognition of our research group (ref.
Depression is a recognized mental health problem in adolescence and body dissatisfaction is an important risk factor. The main goal of this study is to examine the relationship between body dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms, and whether it depends on adolescents’ weight status, an issue that remains understudied. Two hundred and fourteen adolescents (12–16 years) completed self-report measures of depressive symptoms, body dissatisfaction and weight status (i.e., current body weight and height, to compute body mass index z-scores, BMIz). Hierarchical multiple regression and moderation analyses were conducted, accounting for gender and age effects on depressive symptoms. Body dissatisfaction was found to be a predictor of depressive symptoms for the low and median BMIz adolescents, but not for those with high BMIz. In addition, this interaction of body dissatisfaction and BMIz improved the ability of the regression model to explain depressive symptoms´ variance beyond the effect of gender and age. The high-BMIz adolescents presented higher body dissatisfaction but similar levels of depressive symptoms, compared to the lower BMIz adolescents. These findings suggest the influence of body dissatisfaction in the emergence of depressive symptoms in the first half of adolescence, and the importance of weight status throughout this path.
Higher education is a fundamental resource to achieve the 2030’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) defined by the United Nations. Specifically, SDG4 advocates the access to quality education for all, including tertiary education. Besides, higher education is expected to be an important condition for achieving other SDGs. Developing countries face particularly important challenges to accomplish these higher education goals. Thus, it is crucial to understand how to promote quality in higher education in the specific context of each country. Among the most important factors influencing higher education quality are professors’ conceptions of teaching. These conceptions influence teaching action and have a direct impact on students’ own academic performance and learning outcomes. Teaching conceptions seems to be strongly influenced by cultural values and social norms and in African countries there is little research in this field. This study aims to characterize and understand both the conceptions of teaching and on facilitating factors and barriers to university teaching held by the University of Sao Tome and Principe (USTP) faculty. The data were obtained through semi-structured interviews to 19 university professors and analyzed through qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The results suggest the prevalence of teacher-centered/transmission-oriented and student-centered/learning-oriented conceptions of university teaching. In addition, other conceptions highlight professors’ competences and the relationship between teaching and context variables. Organizational aspects of the education system, material resources and facilities, characteristics and training of the faculty, teaching action, and students’ characteristics, are mentioned both as facilitators and barriers to university teaching. Some contributions emerged from the professors’ conceptions that could inspire improvements at the USTP teaching, therefore contributing to facing changes and challenges of a society in development.
A reorganização do autoconhecimento tem sido considerada um dos temas mais importantes do desenvolvimento psicológico na adolescência. Considerando o autoconhecimento como teoria (ou teorias) pessoal com funções adaptativas, estas reorganizações podem ser vistas como movimentos adaptativos face às numerosas transformações primárias da adolescência. De um modo geral, dispersas na literatura, encontram-se referências a transformações físicas e a uma diversidade de novos contextos sociais com os quais o adolescente se depara e que requerem dele a construção de novas teorias, novos guiões pessoais para a sua atuação no mundo. É também referida na literatura a emergência de novas habilidades cognitivas e a possibilidade de construções cognitivas mais sofisticadas e flexíveis. Neste trabalho procede-se a uma revisão não sistemática de algumas das mais importantes transformações físicas, cognitivas e sociais da adolescência, e sua relação com mudanças no autoconhecimento. São abordados: (a) a emergência da sexualidade genital e as alterações da forma e do tamanho do corpo, e sua importância na construção de um autoconceito sexual e em alterações na imagem corporal; (b) as expetativas sociais relativamente aos adolescentes que contribuem para a criação de um sentido de identidade pessoal, bem como a circulação por um número crescente de contextos sociais favorece a construções de uma diversidade de eus relacionais (ou de eus em diferentes papeis sociais), e a influência que as redes sociais têm na construção de um "eu embrulho"; (c) a emergência de habilidades cognitivas abstratas, que possibilitam a diferenciação de múltiplos eus ou o crescimento das autodiscrepâncias (e.g., eu real-eu ideal), mas dão também lugar a conflitos no seio do self, antes de se poder alcançar um autoconhecimento mais coerente. É também sublinhada a interligação entre estas transformações (corporais, sociais e cognitivas) na construção do autoconhecimento. Palavras chave: adolescência; autoconceito; puberdade; desenvolvimento cognitivo; contextos sociais; identidade.
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